Monday Poetry Train #19
Why Purple Silence Answers Urgent Plight
by Joy Renee
Baby cries, hand flies--
Cheek a-welt with purple palm,
Baby squeals, hand seals--
Throat aflame with silenced scream.
Baby wails, hand flails--
Butt a-throb with answered pleas.
Adult kneels, hands steepled--
Heart a-freight with urgent needs.
Voices sing, claps ring--
Church aglow with plighted praise.
“Our Father hear our sighs!
As we hear our children’s cries!”
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I wrote this in the early 90s during the time I began to question the doctrines I was raised under because of the treatment of children dictated or justified by them.
8 tell me a story:
Yowie. That's tough stuff.
#2 pushed a friend down our front steps last week. I gave her a swat, not even a spank (I'm the world's wussiest spanker) and my neighbor, the girl's mom, was horrified. Sometimes, you gotta get their attention.
But to hurt a child? Unthinkable. Which is why I'm the world's wussiest spanker.
Man that sucks. How strong you are for living through it, recognizing it for what it was, and walking away from it.
Beating children ... makes me sick to my stomach. Powerful poem.
“Our Father hear our sighs!
As we hear our children’s cries!”
Exactly.
It always makes me shake my head when evangelicals fixate on the Old Testament - eye-for-an-eye - and miss the Biggest Message of All: Turn the other cheek. 2000 years later and people still don't get it. Especially the evangelicals.
This poem jabs with very black humour - and works perfectly.
This poem is so sad...But then, it is full of truth. I work a lot with kids, something I wonder if some are abuse because of the way they act...
Thanks for sharing...
But a child does not how it is acting when so young. What is our excuse?
I work for girls abused by their near and dear ones including their own fathers.
oh yeah Joy - i'm with you on this one. The hypocrisy and contradictions woven into and between the words which still resonate with ritual constraints.
Very very well done!
Joy Renee, I just posted my Nice Matters Awards - a month-and-a-half later, I realize. You see how time zooms by for me. I wanted to thank you again for passing it along to me. Hugs to you!
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